“I BELIEVE THAT PREMIUM VODKA IS ONE OF THE CROWN JEWELS OF ALL CONSUMER GOODS.”

WITH THE SKY GLOWING a stunning blend of orange, pink and blue and the massive summer sun slowly sinking below the jagged horizon of the Tatra Mountains of Slovakia, a small blue car wound its way down from the mountains into the valley below. In the car sat Dr. Malcolm Lloyd, his godfather John Gellner and their trusted Slovakian translator and local country liaison. After touring dozens of distilleries throughout Eastern Europe, Lloyd and his team knew they’d found the one.

Nestled on a hillside in a 13th-century village tucked into the foothills of the Tatras, they’d discovered a distillery and its passionate master distiller Jan Krak, who was working on what he felt was the best-tasting, purest vodka he’d ever produced in his 50 years of making the clear spirit. !e vodka stunned Lloyd and the others with its taste and character.

“I knew that day I’d found an incredible master distiller, an ideal distillery partner, a gorgeous and unique country of origin and a rich story for this vodka,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd and his team went on to work with Krak and the distillery to put the finishing touches on the final formula for the vodka. !e final product is handcrafted in small batches using locally-grown winter wheat, and mountain spring water. Each batch is seven-times distilled and seven-times filtered, resulting in an exceptionally smooth and clean vodka. !e vodka would later be named Double Cross, to honor the centuries-old double cross symbol in the Slovak flag and coat of arms.

“I’m still as excited today as I was that day in Slovakia crammed in the car flying down those mountain roads,” Lloyd says. “We have a world-class vodka on our hands and, if we play our cards right, possibly one of the great spirits brands of all time. No pun intended, I’ve poured my entire life into the success of this venture.”

But make no mistake about it, breaking into the vodka industry is no martini happy hour. !e vodka segment is very competitive with hundreds of new brands launched every year – from small start-up brands to new releases from the largest spirits companies. Vodka is the top-selling spirit in the U.S. with 32 percent of the multi-billion dollar spirits market.

And still companies large and small seek to succeed in the vodka segment because if you can build a brand with the right blend of marketing, price and growth you can, for lack of a better term, strike it rich. Acquisition prices in the segment during the last decade average eight times current

Just what the doctor ordered: Double Cross Vodka

about $39.99 retail.”Double Cross is currently

available in more than 30 states throughout the United States. It has won numerous industry awards for taste and bottle design. Wine Enthusiast gave it a rare 95 points, the ultra-critical Spirits Review gave it four stars

and Double Cross is the only vodka ever to win gold medals for both taste and design at the San Francisco World Spirit Competition, arguably the most important spirits competition in the world.

As a result, top bars, clubs and restaurants in markets like New York, Miami, Boston, Atlanta, New Jersey and more feature the vodka. It’s popular in places like the Boom Boom Room and 1Oak in New York City and Prime 112 and the Fontainebleau in Miami. !e brand recently signed a deal with Morton’s Steakhouse, to be the lead vodka used in a signature martini throughout the country. After much success in !e Palm Steakhouses of New York, Double Cross is now behind every Palm bar across the U.S.

With the company’s third year of multi-million dollar sales and growth during the first half of this

year 165 percent, the future is looking very bright indeed. In New York, Double Cross is the fastest growing ultra-premium spirits brand (shelf price over $35.00).

“!is kind of growth and industry recognition makes a spirits brand like Double Cross a very valuable business proposition,” Lloyd said. “It also makes our dedicated investors raise a glass.” Lloyd adds that many of the company’s investors have turned into passionate brand ambassadors.

Says Corey Bronstein, SVP/General Manager of Allied Beverage Group, the largest distributor in New Jersey; “Malcolm picked up the challenging dynamics of our ever-changing business extremely rapidly and is doing an excellent job in his role. In my 25 years in the industry I’ve never seen a brand quite like Double Cross. It’s the fastest growing brand in our portfolio over the $30 wholesale price.”

Over the years Bronstein has become something of a mentor to Lloyd, or Doctor Vodka, as some in the spirits industry refer to him (more on Doctor Vodka later). Lloyd says he’s honored to have such influential mentors in this business. He enjoys learning from the industry’s finest and feels fortunate to have been given the attention.

revenue of the purchased company. Grey Goose famously sold in 2004 for $2.4 billion after about eight years on the market. In 2008, Absolut sold for $8.9 billion. !at same year Ketel One sold half its company for $900 million. !e year before Svedka sold for $340 million. !e list goes on. You can see why companies want into this lucrative space.

Despite the competitive nature of the vodka market, Lloyd is positive and confident in the direction of Double Cross.

“!e future is very bright,” he says. “With the larger spirits companies focused more on value brands, the economic downturn actually a"orded us with a unique and ironic opportunity to get a foothold in what we believe is the next generation price point for top-shelf martini vodka, which is

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Developing relationships with spirits industry leaders has certainly paid o! – it was through this that Jim Clerkin, CEO of Moet Hennessy USA, introduced Lloyd to Harvey and Wayne Chaplin, the owners of Southern Wines & Spirits (SWS), the largest distributor in the U.S. "ose conversations resulted in a national contract with SWS and a crucial distributor partnership.

Lloyd wasn’t always roaming the hillsides in search of the perfect vodka, or making cocktails for celebrities at charity events in major cities. In the beginning, Lloyd was on a path to making his rounds.

After high school, Lloyd studied biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins and went on to get his Medical Doctorate from Dartmouth Medical School. While originally passionate about orthopedic surgery and eager to become a successful doctor, he realized soon after graduating that he was, at his core, an entrepreneur. And so he chose a slightly di!erent path.

He first went on to work with the Boston-based venture capital firm MPM Capital, which invests globally in healthcare innovation. With $20 million of capital, Lloyd then spent four years founding and building Medaptus Inc., which focused on providing physicians with mobile IT solutions. In just a decade, it has morphed into a full-on electronic medical record company and over the years Lloyd has led the development of numerous medical device patents.

Soon after stepping away from Medaptus, Lloyd found himself in Princeton, New Jersey living with his godfather for a short time while he worked for one of the portfolio companies he’d worked with at MPM. "e job was interesting enough, but not quite as interesting as his godfather’s.

“I became very curious about my godfather’s business,” he said of Gellner, who at the time was a broker selling vodka and had been in the liquor business most of his life. Gellner’s experience ranges from owning a liquor store to building his own distributorship, to running a division of the largest distributor in New Jersey for over 20 years.

Having admired Gellner’s involvement in all segments of the industry, Lloyd learned more and more about the vodka phenomenon in the U.S. He found himself thinking more and more about creating his own brand and was confident that his entrepreneurial skills and experience could be again successful in the spirits industry.

“In each decade there is a major change with respect to which brands are the top shelf products,” he explains. In the early ‘70s, it was all about Smirno!. "en came Absolut in the 80s. "e 90s saw the success of Ketel One, followed by Belvedere and Grey Goose, all still very popular amongst premium spirits.

“"e goal with my godfather was to create one of the next-generation ultra-premium vodka brands,” Lloyd says. With the timing just right for a new vodka to reign supreme, the idea for Double Cross Vodka was born. Lloyd took cues from the successful vodka ventures before him.

“I believe that premium vodka is one of the crown

jewels of all consumer goods,” he says. “It has high volumes, strong margins, consumers ready and willing to trade up and you don’t need to age the distillate.”

And so, in 2004, Lloyd and Gellner set out on a mission to find the best possible partnership for the brand. With a little help from connections in the U.S. State Department in Slovakia, the two found themselves in the aforementioned little blue car, careening through the mountains on their way to discovering the source of Double Cross."ey liked that the distillery o!ered large-scale

production and is able to meet any kind of consumer demand in the U.S. And, after meeting with top mixologists in the U.S. who tasted and loved the vodka, Lloyd became even more confident in the vodka’s taste and quality."e last step was coming up with a name. “"e

naming process was literally more di#cult than naming my own son,” he jokes. "ey chose Double Cross to salute its Slovakian roots and also because the name and symbol o!er numerous possibilities for branding and marketing.

“We are just beginning to hit stride and I look forward to the exciting growth that lies ahead for Double Cross,” he says “"e brand has a true following – almost cult-like – that is growing virally. We have a business plan and a strategy that is right on target and serves as our road map for achieving success.” When asked for a last comment on what it takes to make it in the vodka world, he says you need to stick to the basics and work hard every day (and night). “We have a great product, smart, passionate and dedicated employees, an ‘infectious’ spirit to succeed and an endless desire to learn from the successes of the past while using modern approaches to brand building,” he says. “We’ll stop at nothing to ensure the success of this brand.”

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“I BELIEVE THAT PREMIUM VODKA IS ONE OF THE CROWN JEWELS OF ALL CONSUMER GOODS.”

WITH THE SKY GLOWING a stunning blend of orange, pink and blue and the massive summer sun slowly sinking below the jagged horizon of the Tatra Mountains of Slovakia, a small blue car wound its way down from the mountains into the valley below. In the car sat Dr. Malcolm Lloyd, his godfather John Gellner and their trusted Slovakian translator and local country liaison. After touring dozens of distilleries throughout Eastern Europe, Lloyd and his team knew they’d found the one.

Nestled on a hillside in a 13th-century village tucked into the foothills of the Tatras, they’d discovered a distillery and its passionate master distiller Jan Krak, who was working on what he felt was the best-tasting, purest vodka he’d ever produced in his 50 years of making the clear spirit. !e vodka stunned Lloyd and the others with its taste and character.

“I knew that day I’d found an incredible master distiller, an ideal distillery partner, a gorgeous and unique country of origin and a rich story for this vodka,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd and his team went on to work with Krak and the distillery to put the finishing touches on the final formula for the vodka. !e final product is handcrafted in small batches using locally-grown winter wheat, and mountain spring water. Each batch is seven-times distilled and seven-times filtered, resulting in an exceptionally smooth and clean vodka. !e vodka would later be named Double Cross, to honor the centuries-old double cross symbol in the Slovak flag and coat of arms.

“I’m still as excited today as I was that day in Slovakia crammed in the car flying down those mountain roads,” Lloyd says. “We have a world-class vodka on our hands and, if we play our cards right, possibly one of the great spirits brands of all time. No pun intended, I’ve poured my entire life into the success of this venture.”

But make no mistake about it, breaking into the vodka industry is no martini happy hour. !e vodka segment is very competitive with hundreds of new brands launched every year – from small start-up brands to new releases from the largest spirits companies. Vodka is the top-selling spirit in the U.S. with 32 percent of the multi-billion dollar spirits market.

And still companies large and small seek to succeed in the vodka segment because if you can build a brand with the right blend of marketing, price and growth you can, for lack of a better term, strike it rich. Acquisition prices in the segment during the last decade average eight times current

Just what the doctor ordered: Double Cross Vodka

about $39.99 retail.”Double Cross is currently

available in more than 30 states throughout the United States. It has won numerous industry awards for taste and bottle design. Wine Enthusiast gave it a rare 95 points, the ultra-critical Spirits Review gave it four stars

and Double Cross is the only vodka ever to win gold medals for both taste and design at the San Francisco World Spirit Competition, arguably the most important spirits competition in the world.

As a result, top bars, clubs and restaurants in markets like New York, Miami, Boston, Atlanta, New Jersey and more feature the vodka. It’s popular in places like the Boom Boom Room and 1Oak in New York City and Prime 112 and the Fontainebleau in Miami. !e brand recently signed a deal with Morton’s Steakhouse, to be the lead vodka used in a signature martini throughout the country. After much success in !e Palm Steakhouses of New York, Double Cross is now behind every Palm bar across the U.S.

With the company’s third year of multi-million dollar sales and growth during the first half of this

year 165 percent, the future is looking very bright indeed. In New York, Double Cross is the fastest growing ultra-premium spirits brand (shelf price over $35.00).

“!is kind of growth and industry recognition makes a spirits brand like Double Cross a very valuable business proposition,” Lloyd said. “It also makes our dedicated investors raise a glass.” Lloyd adds that many of the company’s investors have turned into passionate brand ambassadors.

Says Corey Bronstein, SVP/General Manager of Allied Beverage Group, the largest distributor in New Jersey; “Malcolm picked up the challenging dynamics of our ever-changing business extremely rapidly and is doing an excellent job in his role. In my 25 years in the industry I’ve never seen a brand quite like Double Cross. It’s the fastest growing brand in our portfolio over the $30 wholesale price.”

Over the years Bronstein has become something of a mentor to Lloyd, or Doctor Vodka, as some in the spirits industry refer to him (more on Doctor Vodka later). Lloyd says he’s honored to have such influential mentors in this business. He enjoys learning from the industry’s finest and feels fortunate to have been given the attention.

revenue of the purchased company. Grey Goose famously sold in 2004 for $2.4 billion after about eight years on the market. In 2008, Absolut sold for $8.9 billion. !at same year Ketel One sold half its company for $900 million. !e year before Svedka sold for $340 million. !e list goes on. You can see why companies want into this lucrative space.

Despite the competitive nature of the vodka market, Lloyd is positive and confident in the direction of Double Cross.

“!e future is very bright,” he says. “With the larger spirits companies focused more on value brands, the economic downturn actually a"orded us with a unique and ironic opportunity to get a foothold in what we believe is the next generation price point for top-shelf martini vodka, which is

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D O U B L E C R O S S V O D K A : : H A U T E PA R T N E R S